THE ROLE OF CARDIAC MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF CARDIOMYOPATHY IN PEDIATRICS

Abstract

Cardiomyopathies are different in etiology, clinical presentation, and expected outcome; for these reasons, they must be diagnosed with imaging techniques that provides precise, reproducible, objective and reliable assessment of the many aspects of the disease, such as morphology, function, and tissue characterization of the damaged myocardium. Echocardiography remains the first-line imaging investigation for pediatric patients, as it is portable, non-invasive and provides immediate anatomical and physiological information, yet the cardiac MRI has become an important non-invasive imaging modality for imaging of cardiomyopathy in the pediatric age group. Cardiac MR is an excellent imaging technique for assessing the morphologic and functional characteristics of cardiomyopathy. The use of late-enhancement sequences has had an important effect on the ability to characterize the myocardium and also aids in improving clinical risk stratification. The lack of ionizing radiation makes cardiac MR imaging an important tool in screening and serial assessment of progressive myocardial diseases especially in pediatric patients. Furthermore it plays an important role in the patients with poor acoustic window who are inconvenient for echocardiography. When a patient is referred for cardiac MR imaging, an important initial task is to first gain as much clinical information about the suspected diagnosis .Obtaining electrocardiographic and echocardiographic findings is very valuable